RJUHSD spending targets at-risk groups
BY MIKAYLA STEARNS
[email protected]
This article is part one of a two-part series. In this article, Eye of the Tiger details how the district allocated 2015-16 LCAP funds. In the next issue, we look at the spending’s impact on Roseville
High School programs.
Roseville Joint Union High School District received discretionary funds for this school year from a newly-implemented, state-wide program.
Local Control Accountability Plan funds are supposed to provide equity in education for the student body, particularly for at-risk groups such as foster and homeless youth, students who qualify for free and reduced lunch, special education students and English Language Learners.
“That’s what we are doing now with our LCAP money, is trying to throw out a real safety net so that nobody falls through,” RJUHSD superintendent Ron Severson said. “So that when they are struggling, someone notices and we get them help.”
The district must spend LCAP funds in a way that falls under an umbrella of eight priority areas: services for foster youth, student achievement, school climate, instruction of expelled students, basic services, student engagement, implementation of Common Core standards, course access, parental involvement, and other student outcomes.
According to principal David Byrd, the eight standards for LCAP expenditures allow for a broader usage of the funds.
“They gave us more flexibility and local control in how we spend the money,” Byrd said. “So that’s been very helpful, for sure.”
The district plans to funnel most of the LCAP funds into projects that fulfill the “student achievement” category.
“Our LCAP funds have to address all of those [categories], but we are able, because of our circumstances, to focus more on the student achievement,” Severson said. “For the most part, efforts and money are going to student achievement.”
As part of the LCAP spending plan, Roseville High School received $50,000 in discretionary funds this year – as did the other four comprehensive sites. Alternative education sites like Independence and Adelante received $6,000.
The “District-wide Programs and Actions” for student achievement from LCAP include an $114,469 expense to hire math coaches, $132,250 for the release periods of IM 2 and 3 teachers, and $70,000 for professional development of teachers.
RJUHSD also paid $213,637 for two full time, non-intervention counselors at Oakmont High School and Woodcreek High School.
Byrd and Severson plan to support the at-risk groups of students by ensuring that all students are aware of their opportunities to take advanced classes.
“We are in the midst of a district-wide effort and a school to try and go out and recruit more students and more diverse students into our AP and honors programs,” Byrd said.
The district allocated $37,000 to pay for the release periods of AP coordinators and IM teachers, under the categories of student achievement and implementing Common Core standards.
“This is a big one for us, the implementation of the Common Core standards,” Severson said. “So that’s where we’re paying for [the] release periods in math, and those will probably shift to science in the next few years.”
In addition to paying for release periods and professional development, RJUHSD also paid $283,349 to add three English Language Development teachers .
For ELD students, Byrd is prioritizing access to technology and educational materials. He hopes reaching a 1:1 Chromebook-to-student ratio will give ELD students more opportunity. The district has a total of $217,500 going towards technology, cited specifically for chromebooks for ELD, Special Education, and Access Math.
“It usually comes down to the same three things: instructional support, instructional materials for EL students,” Byrd said. “What we’re looking at is trying to support them and make sure they have technology in the home, instructional technology in the home. We are intrigued by the way some other schools have done it where we can check out a Chromebook to our EL students so they can also have internet access and they can utilize technology.”
Those who fall into the low socioeconomic range have similar needs to pinpoint, Byrd says.
“We wind up trying to do the same things for those free and reduced lunch kids as well, because it’s usually the same kind of basic needs and basic challenges,” Byrd said. “When you look at the numbers, our free and reduced lunch kids are not often the ones who get put into an academically rigorous environment with honors and AP. And so that’s where we’ve hopefully been able to invest some time and some money with recruiting, and supporting, and providing resources to that group of students to get them into AP and to keep them in the AP program.”
Outside of the LCAP expenditures, RJUHSD offered a free health fair to low-income families and their students.
“[The district] did a health fair this fall, so families got free dental and medical check ups,” Severson said. “[The district] got the farmer’s market to donate all of the produce, basically healthy foods and stuff like that.”
Under “Intervention for Struggling Learners- Social Emotional Support,” RJUHSD allocated $105,775 for social work interns, $164,802 for marriage and family therapist interns, and $20,000 for home visits.
According to Byrd, RHS administration’s outreach to foster and homeless youth remains an area for improvement.
“The foster youth group is the one that we probably know least about helping, because they get helped just so quietly, by our learning support specialists,” Byrd said. “By trying to build relationships with those kids and trying to get to know who they are, those kids know who to privately and quietly go to if they need something.”
Byrd and Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English teacher Heather Gregory, hope to make strides in ELD instruction during the summer.
“We are discussing some opportunities to do some things in the summertime with an ELD team in a more intensive environment and really focus on their curriculum and focus on their instruction and really focus on the way in which they structure their program,” Byrd said.
The ELD department also receives a separate fund from LCAP relative to the amount of ELD students on a site. Roseville has a $35,550 fund, the second highest in the district.
“We’re using these funds to increase the number of ELD students going to a post-secondary education,” Gregory said. “I would say that they are pretty well supported on campus. All ELD students who meet the requirements are in an ELD support class.”
RJUHSD has a specific fund of $25,000 for college trips, to expose students to a college environment.
“I think what is good to note is that there is a lot of funding that goes into ELD, and special ED, and all of these other categorical funds, and I think it is important for [everyone] to know that a lot of our ELD students continue, and then go to college,” Gregory said. “So all that money is not for waste. That’s talked about a lot in schools, like ‘Is it really worth it?”
Though Byrd admits he sometimes regards the classifications for LCAP funds as “complicated” or “tricky,” he strives to allocate money in the most efficient way possible.
“I don’t like people who work for public service who are wasting the taxpayer’s dollar, and I take that piece very seriously,” Byrd said. “And I’m not necessarily asking for more money and throwing more money at the problem.”
Severson hopes for a future of better adaptability to individual student needs.
“We have to be more nimble, and we have to be better able to figure out what the kid needs,” Severson said. “Because some of [the students] just need to have a healthier life, and some of them need remedial skills, and some of them need both.”
